Khaplu, Gilgit-Baltistan: Our ancestors understood nature. They built artificial glaciers, man-made ice structures formed during the colder months to store water and release it slowly during the dry spring, when seasonal shortages make life difficult. These ingenious systems helped mountain communities survive in harsh conditions. But over time, that wisdom faded. Now, with climate change threatening our way of life, we knew we had to bring it back.
We were just kids, drawn to the towering glaciers of Skardu. But one year, the ice didn’t just melt—it destroyed everything in its path. Entire villages were left barren. People fought over the last drops of water. Families started leaving. That’s when it hit us: fighting won’t bring water back. And the brutal effects of climate change were happening right in front of us, changing our lives.
One day, my younger brother Ghayur, my cousin Mairaj, and I sat down and asked ourselves: could we build our own glacier?
With scraps we found around the village, we built a makeshift prototype. It wasn’t perfect—but it worked, just enough to give us hope. It was small, rough, and held together with whatever we had.
But how do a couple of clueless teenagers from Khaplu take an idea like this forward? We had no money. No connections. No exposure to the world. We didn’t even have access to the internet! We had no idea where to begin.
Then one day at school, a visiting youth facilitator, Nasim Rashpori, told us about the Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge. We didn’t really understand what it was. But we knew one thing: this was our chance.
We had never filled out an application, didn’t own a laptop, and had no way to send anything online. But Nasim believed in us. We wrote our answers by hand, and he kindly submitted the application for us. A few weeks later, we got the news—our idea had been selected out of hundreds!
We had never left our village before. Traveling to Islamabad felt like stepping into another world. The buildings were tall. The roads were loud. For the first time, we used a laptop and connected to WiFi. We entered a digital universe we never even knew existed. And in that moment, we realized just how much we didn’t know.
But we were here, and we were determined to learn. And we refused to be left behind because of our backgrounds.
We weren’t just kids anymore. We were leading a team of experienced men, making real decisions, managing money, and learning from every mistake.
At the Generation Unlimited bootcamp, we found our voice and confidence. Our English wasn’t perfect, but our ideas mattered. Our trainer, Imad Rizvi, told us something we’ll never forget: “Your ideas matter just as much as anyone else’s.”
We returned home with new energy. Then something unimaginable happened—we were selected among the top five teams and awarded PKR 175,000 to bring our idea to life.
We were overwhelmed with excitement, but the real challenge was just beginning.
The glacier site was at 4,800m altitude. It took a full day’s trek through freezing terrain, carrying heavy equipment, and facing the constant risk of a fatal fall. Our mother worried every time we left.
“Be back before dark,” she’d say. But she never stopped us. Her trust gave us the courage to keep going.
We weren’t just kids anymore. We were leading a team of experienced men (paid volunteers from the community), making real decisions, managing money, and learning from every mistake.
Along the way, we learned so much—like how to choose the right materials, such as high-quality pipes that wouldn’t burst in extreme weather. We figured out how to pick the best glacier sites, which direction they should face to prevent premature melting, and most importantly, how to design something that would be sustainable.
Armed with the lessons we learned with our first glacier using our prize money, we reached out to UNICEF again with a better plan. While our core team worked in the mountains, I led the proposal writing from Islamabad, where I had just started my studies. After months of back-and-forth, we received another sizeable grant from them along with a full year of mentorship from UNICEF and the School of Leadership Foundation.
From August 2024 to June 2025, we put our new plan into action. After careful assessment, we selected Machulo village as the next glacier site. This time, we scaled up—using stronger materials, building larger and more efficient glacier structures, and applying every lesson from our first attempt. Our goal had evolved too. It wasn’t just about survival anymore—it was about helping entire communities adapt to a changing climate
In October 2025, with the help of twelve local labourers, we worked for eleven grueling days in sub-zero temperatures—sometimes dropping below -20°C. Despite the extreme conditions, we succeeded in constructing two fully functional artificial glaciers in Machulo.
After completing the glaciers, we turned our focus inward—on our own growth. We participated in the Young Leaders Conference, an experience that strengthened our confidence, communication, and leadership skills. We also joined UNICEF’s Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) training, learning how to effectively engage with communities on climate action.
Empowered with this new knowledge, we held climate awareness sessions in nearby villages—sharing how climate change is already hurting us, and how we can fight back together, using our land, our traditions, and our ideas. We spoke about the role of artificial glaciers, and practical steps to sustain them through community ownership.
What started as a desperate idea by a group of young dreamers in Skardu has grown into a full-fledged movement—one rooted in ancestral wisdom, driven by modern learning, and powered by the strength of community.
About the Author
Zeeshan Abbas, 17, is the team lead of Siachen Sherpa, a youth-led climate innovation team from Khaplu, Gilgit-Baltistan. A passionate advocate, Zeeshan has played a key role in designing and scaling artificial glaciers to tackle seasonal water scarcity in remote mountain communities surrounding his hometown. Under his leadership, Siachen Sherpa became the youngest team to win the Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge 3.0 in Pakistan. With support from UNICEF, they have constructed multiple glaciers and led climate awareness campaigns across the region. Zeeshan and his team continue to inspire youth-led environmental action across the country.